Recently, many machines have been developed for cleaning carpets in residential, commercial, and industrial locations. Such machines are normally brought to the work site in a truck or van by a professional carpet cleaner. With the more sophisticated machinery, the main power plant for the unit is mounted in the truck and the only equipment brought into the building is a wand and two long hoses. Generally, the wand comprises a unit which may be moved back and forth across a carpet by an operator who may selectively operate one or more valves on the wand. Both hoses are connected between the wand and the machinery in the truck; one nose is used to bring cleaning fluids to the wand for injection into the carpet and the other hose is used for drawing a vacuum in order to pull dirt and used cleaning fluid from the carpet.
In most of the prior art machines, the equipment mounted in the truck comprises a structure for mixing water taken from the building water system with cleaning chemicals, an electric heater for heating the water and chemicals to a predetermined temperature, a pump for moving the fluid to the wand, a vacuum pump for withdrawing the fluid from the wand, and a waste sump for temporarily storing the dirt and cleaning fluid drawn out of the carpet.
Unfortunately, the prior art machines have been proven to be relatively deficient in several aspects. In order to provide power to the pumps and heater, it has been necessary that the operator connect his equipment to the electrical system of the building in which carpet is being cleaned. In many cases, it is necessary for the operator to connect his equipment into two or three separate electrical circuits in order to prevent overloading of the circuitry in the building. Thus, for example, it might be necessary for the operator to use one circuit for the fluid pump, a second circuit for the vacuum pump, and a third circuit for the cleaning fluid heater. Also, in order to prevent overloading any one of those circuits, the prior art machines have allowed the use of only one cleaning wand with each truck-mounted unit. Thus, if a large job is to be undertaken and accomplished and it is desired to use more than one operator at any given time, it is necessary to bring one truck to the job site for each operator who will be working. In other words, if the job is big enough to allow the use of two operators efficiently, such efficiency is diminished by requiring that two trucks be brought to the job. In other words, the capital investment required is doubled.
Consequently, it has become very desirable to provide a machine which produces sufficient power to allow two or more operators to clean carpeting simultaneously, without overloading the power capabilities of the building in which the carpet is being cleaned.